This was my first year working with Redux and running the animation channel has been a fantastic voyage. I’ve been truly amazed by the level of talent out there in the animation community. I’ve laughed, cried, cheered and been genuinely surprised. Animators are a special breed who work in an extremely difficult field that requires patience, diligence and copious hours of work. The result is a catalogue of amazing films that are as special as the people who created them. I am impressed with the range of materials used for the films. The most obvious is 3D computer animation. We are all familiar with this from popular films at the movie theater. But I have watched films made of cut paper, sand, clay, watercolor, photographs, photocopies, pages of books, nuts, bolts, bits of wire and more and more. The materials aren’t as important as the story and these animators tell a great tale. I still go back and watch films I found months ago. For the ‘Best Of’ I selected a few of the moments I remember most. These weren’t necessarily the most popular videos but each one stood out in my mind. I hope you will take a moment to enjoy them for yourself!
The animation style in this film is superb and very unique. The message is simple but the telling is masterfully done. As the film progresses the music develops a rhythm that is deep and pulsing like waves. It is not until the final moments that we realize it is the breath of the “giant”, that is, the breath of nature. I hear that breathing for minutes after watching the film.
Chiruri repeats “Amongst Giants” theme of the negative impact man’s industrial activity has on the planet. In this film two young children wander a city full of the walking dead. The water is poisoned and all hope seems lost. The young girl begins to cry and fills the streets with tears. It is in this act of despair that the boy finds hope. I just loved the rendering style in this; painterly, like a water color wash. The music is simple notes on a piano, barely noticeable as the story unfolds. What I appreciated about this film was the ability of the animator to create a film that does not shout or use hyperactive movements like much of the animation we see in popular media.
Filmed in the grand style of the black and white Hollywood films of the 1940’s “Overtime” is an animated funeral opera full of possessed puppets created by their now deceased master. The animator is clearly a master of their craft. I was blown away. The animation is masterful, the story something that could only be told by one person and it is finished so professionally it belongs on the big screen. Truly worthy of the term masterpiece.
Set in the not too distant future “Thursday” follows one day in the life of a man and woman inhabiting some giant metropolis. Again we see man pitted against nature in a parable about the loss of the world through the act of conquering it. Filmed without a soundtrack, we are introduced to a rhythm set by an alarm clock that is repeated throughout the film. The film’s tone reminds me of “2001” in its cool, laissez faire attitude towards the modern world man has made for itself. What is ominous about the piece and the way it differs markedly from “Amongst Giants” is the way in which nature expires with hardly a whimper.
“Beat” is another film that relies on rhythm to tell a story. In a cubic structure cubic figures draw rectangles over and over again. One of them starts to hear something new beating inside them. I think many people can relate to this eureka moment. That moment when suddenly it is impossible to go back to being the figure sitting at a desk drawing rectangles over and over again.
